Bitcoin experienced a significant drop of over 2.5%, falling to $114,322 on July 31, shortly after recovering from earlier losses.
Dow and Asian Markets Drop in Response
Just hours after reversing its losses spurred by the Federal Reserve’s decision to leave interest rates unchanged, Bitcoin ( BTC) plunged late on July 31, dropping by more than 2.5% to $114,322 at 7:45 p.m. EDT. The drop followed reports that the U.S. had raised tariffs on Canada to 35% while announcing new sweeping tariffs for dozens of other countries.
The latest measures came just hours before a deadline set by President Donald Trump for countries to strike trade deals with the U.S expired. Though largely expected, the announcement rattled markets, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing 330 points lower. Asian markets also opened lower, with Taiwan’s TAIEX down by more than 162 points and the Hang Seng Index down 45 points.
The tariff announcement, meanwhile, also saw altcoins register steep losses. Ethereum ( ETH) dropped by 4.4% to $3,686, while XRP briefly declined to $2.93 before recovering to trade at $2.99 at the time of writing. The majority of altcoins also dropped by 4% or more, leading the total crypto market capitalization to plunge by 6.9% in 24 hours to $3.84 trillion.
The crypto market’s see-saw pattern over the past two days has seen more than $1 billion in leveraged positions wiped out. As expected, liquidated long positions accounted for a larger portion of the losses incurred by traders during this period. As shown by Coinglass data, between July 30 and August 1 (12:20 a.m. EDT), $925.6 million in long positions had been wiped out versus $159.3 million in short positions.
According to the same data, BTC and ETH saw significant long liquidations, especially over the four-hour and 24-hour windows. Overall, BTC liquidations in 24 hours amounted to $142.19 million, while those for ETH stood at $166.25 million, an indication that traders were betting on an upward movement but got caught in the downturn.
